Until this recent dip in the S&P 500 Index ($SPX), investors could be forgiven for forgetting about risk management. The period since 2009 has been mostly one of bliss for S&P 500 investors, marred temporarily by a 5-week crash in 2020, a 9-month drubbing in 2022, and a regular series of brief market corrections. But history indicates that is not the whole story of equity investing.
For instance, here we are in the 26th year of this century, and over nearly half that time, the S&P 500 gained about zero. The double-bear markets of 2000-2003 and 2007-2009 made sure of that. So, what if another extended bad spell is upon us?
